We are a family of earth lovin folk, living completely off the power grid. We are situated in the Pisgah National forest, and hour from the nearest town. We enjoy gardening, beekeeping,preserving our own food, selling at the local markets and living as simply as possible. we heat and cook with wood.We heat our water with wood and solar and do without some of the luxuries in life but wouldn't have it any other way. Somtimes hard, always rewarding.. THis is our story

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Autumn : A Time For Reflection

I awoke this morning to what seemed to be the first cool morning in close to 6 Months. 65 degrees , overcast, slight breeze, ABsolutely Beautiful... It was definetaly an Autumn Morning....I yearn for this time of year, cool mornings, Fall foliage in the Mountains, starting up the first fire in the cookstove, but most of all,,, MOST OF ALL,, finally slowing down here at The Cool Homestead.Its been an extremely hectic Spring and Summer.. we went from 6 hives to 25 Hives this yr, experienced quite a few swarms, pulled close to 300 lbs of honey, tended to close to 1200 sq ft of garden space, grew hundreds of veggies starts and herbs to sell,vended honey , veggies and plants at the farmers market once a week, canned my behind off ( over 200 jars and still canning, that goes on until about October ;), cleaning coops, butchering chickens, standard yardwork, hive inspections, building hives, splitting hives, chopping wood for winter( with a maul, no log splitter here), weeding,trying to manage my sewing business, ( or lack there of! ) all while husband was gone 50 hours a week at day job! and I had a 4 yr old In tow at all times here at home... you get the picture....heheheWHY? why? why?.. seems to be a question ( or a look) I get when people ask us what we do in our spare time... We dont go out to the movies, or out to eat, or out to the bar... We dont have lunch with friends much or go to the mall. We dont spend our entire summers at music festivals or bonfires, or have friends over every weekend...

SO what DO WE do for fun??? we Jump in the creek, run through the forest, turn up the music and have a beer while we extract and bottle honey, meet and talk to fabulous people at the farmers market, enjoy the solitude of the national forest,watch chicken TV,.(we do go see some live music and we do have your standard FUN too ;)Living as secluded as we do( we live an hour from absolutely anything), and working as much as we do, is hard for some to understand... Its not a life for everyone , but it is the life of a Homesteader, and I feel a Intensly great sense of accomplishment,satisfaction and contenment looking back on 2011...

Autumn still has its work cut out for us.. chopping wood, planting fruit Trees, fall gardening... but things are slowing down...a time to **REFLECT, learn, grow and Plan for a Fantastic 2012 at Bee Kind Family Farm :)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe To

Follow by Email

Followers

Facebook

About Me

Welcome! My name is Jaime. I am a wife, mother, crafter and lover of anything that brings the old way back to life. We live in the woods and completely off the power grid. Join us as we talk about homesteading, farming, off grid living, self sustaining,beekeeping crafting, daily inspiration and just life in general.